Bussed in: The NSW Labor leader on the campaign trail. Photo: James Brickwood

"We are now taking the people's campaign, picking it up here at the border where it left off, fighting over the next 24 days to save the NSW electricity network from a sell-off by the Liberals and Nationals."

Labor rates itself a good chance in the three northern NSW seats of Tweed, Ballina and Lismore – all comfortably held by the Nationals, but where anti-coal seam gas sentiment is said to have fuelled a voter backlash against the government.

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Labor believes it has a particular advantage in Ballina, where government MP Don Page is retiring. It has promised to ban coal seam gas activity from the region if elected – a view backed by Mr Page, who in his valedictory speech said his electorate's lush landscapes, tourist towns and agriculture were not compatible with the industry.

He said north coast voters were unmoved by the big-ticket infrastructure promised to Sydneysiders from the proceeds of the "poles and wires" lease, such as a fast-tracked second harbour rail crossing.

Queensland Premier Palaszczuk is expected to join Mr Foley on the campaign trail on Friday.

But one thing stands clearly in the way of Mr Foley's hopes of emulating her rise – the popularity of NSW Premier Mike Baird, whose slick, affable style is in stark contrast with former Queensland premier Campbell Newman's crash-through approach.

"No two elections are exactly the same, I accept that," Mr Foley said, before returning the defining policy issue of the two campaigns.

"But there is a very clear parallel. The people of Queensland stopped the sale of their electricity network by electing a Labor government. The people of NSW can stop the sale of their electricity network by electing a Labor government."

Later on Thursday, Mr Foley took his campaign bus, with media and candidates on board, to a farm at Myocum, where the owners oppose coal seam gas.

Mr Foley challenged the Nationals Party to adopt Labor's policy of a permanent ban on coal seam gas in the Northern Rivers.

He said the region's industries, including beef, dairy, sugar cane and macadamia farming, "depend on the purity of the fertile land and the purity of clean water. Both of those are at risk from coal seam gas."

"There is too much at stake here [in] a region that is underpinned by its incredibly stunning natural values. Its economic base relies on agriculture and tourism, both of which are based on the clean, green nature of the region," he said.

A report by NSW Chief Scientist Mary O'Kane last year said the risks of coal seam gas could be managed. Mr Foley rejected suggestions he was declaring no-go zones for political gain, saying Labor rewrote its gas policy after consulting with the community.

But NSW Treasurer Andrew Constance said Mr Foley was a "wolf in sheep's clothing".

"It was the Labor Party that created this mess in the first place ... I'd warn the North Coast to be wary of Luke Foley bearing gifts," Mr Constance said.

The government has vowed to improve regulation of the industry, and says under the former Labor government, CSG exploration licences were carelessly handed out across the state.

Later at Ballina Hospital, Mr Foley and Labor's health spokesman Walt Secord, who is also the party's north coast spokesman, pledged $7.3 million towards a new operating theatre and emergency department upgrade.

A nurses' union advertising campaign, supported by Labor, claims government privatisation and outsourcing in hospitals means the system will beome "Americanised", leading to markedly higher costs for patients.

On Thursday, Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the campaign was "nothing more than convenient opportunism".

"Mr Foley knows the private sector has been involved in delivery [of] public hospital services for decades," Mrs Skinner said.

She said the former Labor government contracted out thousands of surgeries to the private sector to cut waiting lists, embarked on several public-private partnerships and routinely outsourced catering, cleaning and laundry services.

On Thursday Mr Foley repeated his support for a draft determination of the Australian Energy Regulator that would drastically cut electricity company revenues, saying it would drive down prices.